Ask Arnie

Do you offer restaurant tours?

We don't have a formal tour program in place at this time, but we've done tours with small school groups and assorted friends. We'd be delighted to show off our production process with just about anyone.

Just contact us, either by email or by speaking with us at the store, and we'll set up a tour. If you notice that we're making ice cream when you visit, don't be afraid to ask if it's possible to come in and watch. If it's not busy, we'll be more than happy to let you stand inside and watch. If we are busy, we'll let you know when would be a good time to come back and see our ice cream making process.

What do you mean by "homemade?"

We don't actually make the ice cream at home but we do make it right out in the back room of our shop. It is just like the ice cream you can make at home - fresh and creamy, and the process is physically similar, but we use a bigger machine called a "batch freezer." Our machine can only produce 2 1/2 gallon tubs at a time, allowing us a great deal of control over the quality of the ice cream.

The other guys sell stuff made in a factory somewhere and their goal is to make lots of ice cream to be served somewhere across the country at some later date. That means they have to include preservatives and other artificial ingredients to make certain the ice cream "holds." They also add whey powder and other ingredients to stretch their ice cream, and whip in lots of air, stretching it even further. This reduces the flavor and taste of their ice cream.

Who actually makes the ice cream?

Tom (or Arnie to most) puts in many hours a week making sure his ice cream is the best you can find around. He is very protective of the quality of his ice cream and although many people may question him about getting into the production side, he is quite picky about who he'll let touch his really old ice cream machine!

Ice cream making sounds like a ton of fun (and it totally is!) but it's also a demanding skill that requires thought, focus, precise timing, some physical strength and a dedication to quality. Being able to produce high quality ice cream definitely requires a craftsmanship that isn't easy to find.

How long does it take to make a batch of ice cream?

The preparation time to get the ingredients together varies depending upon the flavor being made. Vanilla ice cream is easy to make; Extreme Chocolate, on the other hand, is quite the process. But once the ingredients are poured into the batch freezer, it takes between 9 to 15 minutes to turn the mixture into something resembling ice cream.

The semi-frozen ice cream is then poured into 2 1/2 gallon containers and cooled in a hardening cabinet at -25° for at least 12 hours. This fast freezing reduces the formation of ice crystals, and keeps the ice cream so smooth and creamy.

After hardening, the ice cream is incredibly hard and definitely not ready to serve. We then move the ice cream to a storage freezer, and leave it there for another 3 to 6 hours before it tempers to the correct temperature to serve.

What is the difference between ice cream, sherbet, and sorbet?

In the United Statesm there are federal standards for butterfat content of dairy products (butterfat being the fatty portion of the milk). The USDA requires a minimum of 10% butterfat content in order to be sold as "Ice Cream."

Ice Cream contains at least 10% butterfat content. Ours contains 15% butterfat.Soft Serve contains 5% butterfat content (USDA labels it a "frozen dairy dessert"!)Sherbet contains roughly 1-2% of fat dairy product. The dairy is replaced with water (and usually some sugar), making this a lighter, cleaner tasting product.Sorbet contains NO DAIRY content. Instead it is made from sweetened water flavored with fruit (typically juice or puree), wine, or liqueur.

What's the difference between a frappe and a shake?

Depending on where you're from or what search engine you use online, the answer varies. I'll keep it simple and tell you how we do it at Arnie's:Frappe: Hard ice cream, milk, syrup.Milkshake: Soft serve, milk, syrup.

Do you have frozen yogurt?

Yes! We carry frozen yogurt in multiple flavors that can change throughout the year, depending on what sounds yummy at the time or if we get enough special requests for a specific flavor.

Why don't you carry my favorite flavor?

At Arnie's we try to offer a variety of flavors that appeal to the masses but, unfortunately, we can't please everyone all the time. Throughout the season, we try to rotate in different flavors or combine flavors that sound yummy (like Extreme Chocolate and Maple Walnut).

If we're temporarily out of your favorite ice cream flavor, we can almost guarantee we'll have another one you'll enjoy. ( Feel free to ask our staff to recommend one.) We've got plenty of great varieties. Maybe you'll find a new favorite! Also, if you would like us to make a specific flavor we don't have, be sure to mention it! Maybe we'll make a batch of it and have it ready for the next time you visit!

Why do you run out of certain flavors?

Well, we promise that it's not intentional! Although Arnie's Place may look big from the outside, after you subtract the restaurant dining space, the grill area and the front serving line there's not much space left. Filling the remainder of that space are 4 different freezers that we scoop ice cream out of, a freezer that we use to make ice cream cakes, and a big freezer that is used when we make ice cream. Because of our limited freezer storage, we need to closely watch our inventories and try to forecast which flavors we'll be needing in the upcoming days.

Unfortunately, sometimes we misjudge the demand for an ice cream flavor (or we get an unexpected run on one of the popular flavors). We try to restock as quickly as possible when a flavor runs out, but it takes at least 12 hours for ice cream to "harden" correctly to be served. On the positive side, having this limited storage means that our ice cream is always fresh!

Do you smoke your own pork?

YES! First we rub the pork shoulder with a dry spice marinade made especially for us. Then we slow cook the pork in our smoker for 18 hours over hickory wood. We then take the shoulders out and "pull" the meat apart (hence the "pulled pork") and lightly sauce it using our smoky BBQ sauce (although the pork is best straight out of the smoker with no sauce needed!)

Do you smoke your own ribs?

We smoke those too! After pulling the membranes off the St. Louis style ribs and rubbing them with the dry spice marinade, we smoke them for 4 1/2 hours over the same delicious hickory wood.

Do you sell your barbecue in bulk?

Yes we do and you can find all that information on our Bulk BBQ sheet.

Are you gluten-free friendly?

Yes! We have gluten-free sandwich buns, ice cream cones, and over 25 of our hard ice cream flavors are gluten-free! Just come in and let us know you are gluten-free.

How to find us

164 Loudon Road, Concord, NH 03301

Hours

​Open from 11:00am to 9:00pm Friday and Saturday!Open from 11:00am to 8:30pm Sunday-Thursday!Our hours may change, please call for closing hours for that day!Stop on by and say hi!